These garlic green beans are blanched until bright and tender, then tossed in garlicky melted butter for a 20-minute side that goes with everything.

Jump to: Overview | Ingredients | How To Make | Recipe Tips |  Serving Suggestions | Full Recipe Card | More Side Dish Recipes

This is the green bean recipe I make when I want something simple enough for a weeknight dinner but still good enough to belong on a holiday table.

Blanching the beans first keeps them bright green and just tender, so they hold their bite instead of going limp. Then a quick toss in garlicky melted butter is really all they need — no fussing, no extra steps. It’s the kind of side that disappears fast, even with people who claim they’re not big green bean fans. I love that it only takes 20 minutes start to finish (can be done in parallel with other dishes!), which makes it an easy add to a busy roast dinner without taking up valuable stovetop time.

You might also like these green bean recipes: French style green beans, creamy green beans, green beans almondine with sage brown butter, sautéed green beans & mushrooms, green bean and potato salad, or these green bean recipes.

What You’ll Need

How To Make Garlic Green Beans

Recipe Tips/Variations

• Don’t skip the blanching step — it’s what keeps the beans bright green and tender-crisp instead of dull and overcooked.
• Watch the garlic closely once it hits the butter; it only needs 10–15 seconds to turn fragrant before it starts to burn.
• A pinch of paprika or a little extra butter at the end takes this up a notch if you want more flavor.
• Leftovers keep in the fridge for up to 3 days — reheat gently in a skillet or the microwave.

Serving Suggestions

These garlic green beans are an easy side for pretty much any dinner. Serve them alongside ham, chicken, fish or a Sunday roast, and they’re a natural fit for Easter or Thanksgiving tables. They also pair really well with something creamy, like mashed or scalloped potatoes, to balance out the garlicky butter.

If you’ve tried these garlic green beans or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and or sign up to my Newsletter to see more of my delicious food.

More Side Dish Recipes

Source link

Creamy beans in tomato sauce simmered with burst cherry tomatoes, shallots and garlic, and studded with melted ricotta. A cozy, high-protein 30-minute skillet meal.

Jump to: Overview | Ingredients | How To Make | Recipe Tips |  Serving Suggestions | Full Recipe Card | More Tomato & Bean Recipes

Everybody needs more fiber in their life, and this pot of beans in tomato sauce is a genuinely delicious way to get it. It starts with a burst cherry tomato sauce – a little sweet, a little savory, and blitzed until silky – then the beans get to simmer right in it until they’re warmed through and soaking up all that flavor. Dollops of ricotta go in at the end and melt into these gorgeous creamy pockets throughout the dish.

Honestly, the best part is how versatile it is: ladle it into bowls like a stew, or pile it onto toasted sourdough for a rustic open sandwich. Either way, you can’t really go wrong, and with a full can of beans and a cup of ricotta, it’s surprisingly high in protein and fiber for how comforting it tastes.

What You’ll Need

How To Make Beans in Tomato Sauce

Recipe Tips

• Get the sweetness right: cherry or grape tomatoes give the best flavor here because they render down so sweetly. If you can’t find them, swap in a 14.5 oz (410 grams) can of fire-roasted tomatoes and skip the extra water.
• No immersion blender? A regular blender works too – just let the sauce cool slightly first and blend in batches.
• Cheese swaps: burrata or stracciatella make this even more indulgent if you want to switch things up from ricotta.
• Reduce waste: save the bean liquid from the can for another recipe, or stir it back into the sauce if you’d like it a little looser.
• Storage: keep leftovers tightly covered in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat gently on the stove or in the microwave before serving.

Serving Suggestions

This is one of those dishes that works just as well as a cozy dinner for two as it does as a shared starter. Ladle it into bowls and serve with plenty of crusty, buttered bread for scooping up the sauce, or spoon it straight onto toasted sourdough for an open-faced bruschetta-style bite. A simple green salad on the side rounds it out nicely if you want to make it a full meal.

If you’ve tried this beans in tomato sauce with melted ricotta or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and or sign up to my Newsletter to see more of my delicious food.

More Tomato & Bean Recipes

Source link

This Sausage and White Beans with Sage is flavored with tomatoes and ground fennel and it can be made in the Slow Cooker or the Instant Pot. This tasty combination of sausage and beans is surprisingly not that high in carbs, but for even lower carbs just double the sausage and use fewer beans.

PIN the Sausage and White Beans to try it later!

Sausage and White Beans with Sage is one of my favorite slow cooker recipes that I’ve discovered can be made more quickly in the Instant Pot! And it’s fun to have recipes that can work for people who prefer different cooking options. And sausage and white beans are a classic combination that worked out perfectly in both methods.

This recipe was inspired by a lovely woman named Ilva, who lives in Tuscany. I met her online in the early days of blogging and we chatted frequently for a while. Then Ilva stopped focusing on recipes and started to focus on her beautiful food photography, and for the last few years I haven’t talked to her so much.

But I appreciate Ilva introducing me to rustic Italian dishes like this one, where the emphasis is entirely on the flavors and not on the looks of the dish. And there are a lot of ways to adapt this recipe and still get good results, but no matter how you cook it or what kind of beans you use, please do not skip the dried fennel that makes this dish so amazingly flavorful!

What ingredients do you need for this recipe?

(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

• dried white beans
• celery
• whole cloves garlic
• fresh sage leaves, divided
• salt
• dried Italian Herb Seasoning (affiliate link), divided
• Olive Oil (affiliate link), divided
• uncooked turkey, chicken, or pork Italian sausage
• ground fennel (affiliate link)
• canned petite dice tomatoes with juice

What sausage did I use for Sausage and White Beans with Sage?

I used uncooked Italian Sausage for this tasty combination of sausage and beans! You can use turkey, chicken, or pork Italian Sausage and choose mild or spicy Italian Sausage, whichever you prefer.

What gives this sausage and white beans recipe the Italian flavors?

Of course the Italian Sausage used here is partly what makes this a recipe with Italian flavors! But the other ingredients that add Italian flavor notes include garlic, sage, Italian Herb Seasoning, and ground fennel. And I think fennel is one of the best flavors in Italian cooking. If you haven’t cooked with fennel much, I hope this recipe will help you see why I love it.

Can you use canned beans for this sausage and white beans recipe?

Whether you use the Instant Pot or the slow cooker for this recipe featuring sausage and beans, you’ll definitely get the best flavor if you start with dried beans and cook them yourself. But if that just isn’t happening at your house, I’ll also give tips for making this with canned beans.

How high in carbs is this sausage and white beans?

If you check the nutritional information you may be surprised this has only 14 net carbs per serving, with 18 grams of protein.

How can you make this recipe lower in carbs?

If you’re strictly watching carbs,  you can double the amount of sausage and use half as many beans in this recipe for a lower-carb dish with sausage and beans.

How to make Italian Sausage and White Beans with Sage:

(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

1. If you’re cooking your own beans, start with 2 cups of fresh dried white beans. If you want to cook the beans on the stovetop, I would soak them in cold water overnight; for cooking dried beans in the slow cooker or the Instant Pot, you can skip the soaking.
2. Put dried beans, celery, garlic, sage, salt, Italian Herb Seasoning (affiliate link), and a little olive oil in the slow cooker or Instant Pot with enough water to just cover the beans.
3. Cook beans 5-6 hours in the slow cooker. (more here about How to Cook Dried Beans in a Slow Cooker.)
4. In the Instant Pot, lock the lid and cook 30 minutes at HIGH PRESSURE; then let beans NATURAL RELEASE for 15 minutes followed by quick release as needed.
5. For either cooking method, drain the beans, saving the large cloves of garlic and 1/2 cup cooking liquid.
6. While beans cook (or when they’re nearly cooked for slow cooker method) heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large frying pan and brown the sausage. Then slice into diagonal pieces and brown the sides of those pieces. (This adds flavor; please don’t skip the browning!)
7. Put the drained beans, sausage pieces, garlic, sage leaves, canned tomatoes, and ground fennel into the slow cooker or Instant Pot with 1/2 cup reserved liquid.
8. For Instant Pot cook 10 minutes at HIGH PRESSURE, then NATURAL RELEASE for five minutes, and then quick release.
9. For slow cooker, put same ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on high for 2-3 hours.
10. Serve Sausage and White Bean with Sage hot, with a little freshly-grated Parmesan if desired, although the cheese is definitely optional.

Love Your Instant Pot or Slow Cooker?

Check out all my Instant Pot Recipes or Slow Cooker Recipes if you’re a fan of one or both of these handy cooking gadgets!

Weekend Food Prep:

This recipe for sausage and white beans has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep where you’ll find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!

Source link

Cowboy caviar is part fresh dip, part salsa, part salad — a colorful, texture-packed bowl of black beans, corn, crisp peppers, and avocado in a tangy cumin-lime dressing that’s impossible to stop scooping.

Jump to: Overview | Ingredients | How To Make | Recipe Tips |  Serving Suggestions | Full Recipe Card | More Tex-Mex and Bean Recipes

At A Glance

• Ready In: 15 minutes + 1–2 hours chilling
• Serves: 4 (as a dip or side)
• Diet: Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free
• Nutrition Highlights: High in plant-based protein and fiber from black beans; packed with vitamins C and A from bell peppers
• Main Ingredients: Black beans, corn, red and green bell pepper, jalapeño, cherry tomatoes, avocado, cumin-lime dressing
• Flavor Profile: Tangy, fresh, lightly spiced, bright with lime — deeply savory once the beans soak up the dressing
• Meal-Prep Friendly: Keeps 3 days in the fridge without avocado; add avocado right before serving
• Best Served With: Tortilla chips, alongside tacos or grilled meats, or spooned over a rice bowl

Somewhere between a chunky salsa and a bean salad, cowboy caviar is one of those recipes that’s genuinely hard to categorize — and that’s exactly why it works everywhere. You get the color and freshness of a good pico de gallo, the heartiness of a bean salad, and the total scoop-ability of a great party dip, all in one bowl.

Black beans, corn, two kinds of bell pepper, jalapeño, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and green onions get tossed in a cumin-lime dressing that’s tangy, a little bright, and quietly addictive. The fresh avocado goes in right before serving, adding creaminess that pulls the whole thing together.

What I love most about this one is that it genuinely gets better with time — after an hour or two in the fridge, the beans have absorbed the dressing, the onion has mellowed, and the flavors have deepened into something that tastes as if you put in way more effort than you did. It works as a party dip, a taco night side, a topping for rice bowls, or something to set out with chips while dinner finishes cooking. No cooking, one bowl, and it keeps beautifully for days (avocado aside).

You might also like these recipes: Mexican black beans and corn salad, black bean taco casserole, Mexican appetizers, taco side dishes, shrimp poke bowl, or poke bowl (classic tuna).

What You’ll Need

How To Make Cowboy Caviar

Recipe Tips

• Dice everything small and consistently. This is a scoopable dip. Uneven, large chunks make it awkward to get everything onto a chip. Aim for pieces around 1 cm or so — you want a little bit of everything in every bite.
• Don’t skip the resting time. An hour minimum, two hours is better. The beans absorb the dressing, the onion mellows out, and the whole thing tastes far more cohesive after resting. It’s honestly one of those “better the next day” situations.
• Always add avocado last. Right before serving, every single time. Avocado browns fast once cut and dressed, and there’s no recovering from it. Fold it in gently so it stays in distinct pieces.
• Make it spicier: Keep some jalapeño seeds in, add a second jalapeño, or stir in a pinch of cayenne to the dressing.
• Make it more filling: Stir in cooked quinoa or serve over a bed of greens to turn it into a proper salad.
• Italian dressing version: Some versions use Italian dressing instead of the homemade cumin-lime dressing. It’s a shortcut that works — just use about ⅓ cup of your favorite Italian dressing in place of the oil, lime, vinegar, and spices.
• Storage: Without avocado, this keeps brilliantly in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The flavors keep developing — it actually tastes best on day two. Once the avocado is folded in, eat it the same day.
• Make-ahead: This is an ideal make-ahead recipe. Prep the entire bowl (without avocado) up to 24 hours in advance. Cover, refrigerate, and fold in the avocado just before serving.

Serving Suggestions

Tortilla chips are the obvious move here, and this cowboy caviar is genuinely excellent with them — scoop-style chips work especially well, so you get a generous amount in every bite.

Beyond chips, think of it as a versatile condiment: spoon it over grilled chicken or fish, serve it alongside tacos or burritos, use it as a topping for a rice or grain bowl, or pile it onto scrambled eggs in the morning. It’s one of those recipes that finds its way into everything during the week.

If you’ve tried this cowboy caviar or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and or sign up to my Newsletter to see more of my delicious food.

More Tex-Mex and Bean Recipes

Source link

These creamy butter beans with spinach and leeks are rich, garlicky, and ready in one pan — the kind of white beans recipe that feels cozy but comes together fast.

Jump to: Overview | Ingredients | How To Make | Watch The Video | Recipe Tips |  Serving Suggestions | Full Recipe Card | More Hearty Vegetarian Recipes

At A Glance

• Ready In: 30–35 minutes
• Serves: 4–6
• Diet: Vegetarian, gluten-free
• Nutrition Highlights: High in fiber, good plant-based protein, rich in iron
• Main Ingredients: Butter beans, leeks, garlic, cream, spinach, Parmesan
• Flavor Profile: Creamy, savory, lightly sweet, fresh and lemony finish
• Meal-Prep Friendly: Keeps 3–4 days in the fridge
• Best Served With: Toasted sourdough, crusty bread, or alongside grilled chicken or fish if not vegetarian.

This creamy butter beans recipe is one of those quietly impressive dishes — simple, but layered with flavor. The leeks melt down into a soft, slightly sweet base, the beans turn buttery and rich, and the cream ties everything together into a silky sauce.

What makes it really work (and not feel heavy) is the balance — a hit of lemon zest and juice at the end cuts through the richness just enough. It’s the kind of white-bean-and-spinach dish that feels comforting yet fresh and healthy.

It’s also surprisingly satisfying thanks to the fiber and plant-based protein in the beans, which makes it just as good as a main as it is a side.

You might also like these legume recipes: Greek butter beans (for non-creamy skillet meal), lentil and mushroom Bolognese, creamy coconut red lentil soup, or these creamy green beans. More bean recipe ideas here.

What You’ll Need

Here is what you’ll need for this creamy beans skillet recipe. Find the full measurements in the recipe card below.

• Leeks – soften into a sweet, silky base (don’t rush this step)
• Garlic – adds depth and that classic savory backbone
• Olive oil + butter – for richness and flavor layering
• Cream – brings everything together into a luscious sauce, I like to use light cream here.
• Parmesan – salty, nutty, and adds extra umami
• Cannellini or butter beans – creamy, high in fiber and plant protein. Swap: chickpeas work, but you’ll lose that buttery texture
• Spinach – adds color, nutrients, and balances richness, feel free to use kale or chard here.
• Lemon zest + juice – essential for brightness and a little acidity.
• Stock (veg or chicken) – builds flavor into the beans
• Optional – Pinch of nutmeg (subtle, but really lovely with cream and spinach)

How To Make Creamy Butter Beans With Leeks & Spinach

Find the full recipe and nutritional information below. Here are some handy step-by-step photos for this one-pan white beans dish.

• Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-low
• Add sliced leeks with salt and cook 8–10 minutes until soft and silky
• Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds
• Add beans and stock, simmer for 3–4 minutes
• Lightly mash some of the beans to thicken the sauce
• Stir in cream and let it gently bubble
• Add spinach and cook until wilted
• Finish with lemon zest, lemon juice, Parmesan, and black pepper
• Taste and adjust seasoning — this step matters

Watch The Video

Recipe Tips

• Don’t rush the leeks – this is where the flavor starts. Low and slow = sweet and soft
• Mash just some beans – it thickens the sauce naturally without making it stodgy
• Add lemon at the end – keeps it bright and fresh (adding too early dulls it)
• Use good Parmesan – it really makes a difference here
• Variations: Add crispy bacon or pancetta for a smoky twist or sun-dried tomatoes for little pops of tangy and sweet. Stir through mushrooms for extra depth. Use kale instead of spinach for a heartier version
• Storage: Keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat gently on the stove with a splash of stock or water
• Make-Ahead: You can prep the leeks and garlic ahead. The whole dish reheats well, making it great for meal prep

Serving Suggestions

I love serving this straight from the skillet with thick slices of toasted sourdough — the kind you can really drag through the sauce. Sometimes, I would add a fried or soft-boiled egg for extra protein, especially when having this as a main meal or brunch.

It also works beautifully as a side with grilled chicken, fish, or even a simple roast for non-vegetarians, or some roasted veggies or a crisp salad.

If you’ve tried this creamy butter beans with leeks & spinach or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and or sign up to my Newsletter to see more of my delicious food.

More Hearty Vegetarian Recipes

Source link